Method of improving and correcting construction of dentures and shield therefor



April 30, 1957 F H. CHAIKEN 2,790,237 METHOD OF IMPROVING AND CORRECTINGCONSTRUCTION OF DENTURES AND SHIELD THEREFOR Filed July 20. 1953 five/7for Unit S t s Pa fi Q METHOD OF IMPROVING AND CORRECTING CONSTRUCTIONOF DENTURES AND SHIELD THEREFOR Hyman F. Chaiken, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.Application July 20, 1953, Serial No. 373,404

2 Claims. (Cl. 32-2) This invention relates generally to the class ofdentistry and has to do particularly with the fitting of dentures.

A particular object of the present invention is to pro vide an improvedmethod and means of improving the construction of new dentures andcorrecting some of the shortcomings of badly fitting old dentures.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide an improved methodand means of applying a rebase material to a denture to improve orrestore the proper length and fit thereof without permitting the rebasematerial such as jel-like acrylic which is highly irritating to thetissues, to come into contact with the tissues when making theimpression.

A further and more specific object of the invention is to provide amethod of obtaining a perfect, smooth finish impression in a rebasedental material applied to a denture for the purpose of improving thefit of the denture, by introducing between the dental material and thetissues of the mouth which are to be pressed into the dental material toobtain the impression, a tissue thin shield, which permits the making ofthe desired impression and prevents the rebase material from'contactingthe tissues of the mouth.

It is a well established dental fact that all dentures after they havebeen processed require grinding in of the teeth to give the patientcomfort and to give stability to the dentures, especially the lowers.The reason the teeth have to be ground is that, as the denture goesthrough the processing or curing period, there is expansion and thencontraction of the denture. When the denture is inserted in the mouththe occlusion and the vertical dimension is changed. Instead of grindingthe teeth, which lose their sharp cutting surfaces, making them lessefiicient to cut and masticate the food, the dentures, in accordancewith the present method, are rebased and reset in the mouth under thepatients normal occlusion by using a thin shield to give the new base asmooth, silk like finish and also protect the tissues from contact withthe soft jel-like substance used to make the plasticizer. This jel-likesubstance, which is called denture acrylic, is self curing at mouthtemperature and after it is in the mouth three or four minutes, it setsand becomes hard and a perfect union is formed with the denture thusautomatically correcting the occlusion and warpage that occurs duringthe processing in the laboratory. The rebasing, by the present improvedmethod, gives the patient a perfect fitting denture because the new baseis cured against the gum tissue in the mouth without discomfort to thepatient.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an improved methodand means of taking impressions with impression trays, in a morehygienic manner than in the present practice where the trays are usedover and over again and in the majority of cases are merely washed cleanbut are not sterilized, by the employment of a tis sue thin stretchablesack in which the impression tray with the impression or rebase materialis placed so that 2,790,237 Paten e A t- 9 7 the impression is takenagainst the soft stretchable tissue instead of having the tissues of themouth pressed directly into the impression material, such tissue sacksbeing disposable after use.

Other objects and advantages of the presentinvention will becomeapparent as the description of the same proceeds and the invention willbe best understood from a consideration of the following detaileddescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawing forming apart of the specification, with the understanding, however, that theinvention is not to be limited to the exact details of constructionshown and described since obvious modifications will occur to a personskilled in the art.

In the drawing:

Figure l is a view in plan of a thin transparent sack, or receptacle,constructed in accordance with the present invention for use in theprocess for taking impressions in rebasing an upper denture, which isshown in plan'in the sack, or for use in association with an upperimpression tray.

Figure 2 is a sectional view taken substantially on the line 22 ofFigure 1.

Figure 3 is a view in perspective of the sack, or re-' ceptacle shown inFigure-1.

Figure 4 is a view in top plan of a transparent thin sack, orreceptacle, for use in association with a lower I denture or with alower inpression tray.

Figure 5 is a sectional view line 5-5 of Figure 4.

Figure 6 is a view in perspective of the sack, or receptacle shown inFigure 4.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing the numeral 10 generallydesignates the thin transparent sack of the present invention for use incarrying out the present method in the rebasing of an upper denture orin the taking of an impression in an impression tray for the making ofan upper denture.

The sack 10 is, in plan, of approximately the same contour or outline asa full upper denture and is formed throughout of a stretchable andeasily adaptable film in one piece, by a suitable dip process such asthat used for the manufacture of thin latex articles. By forming thesack 10 by the clipping process commonly employed for making latexarticles the walls of the taken substantially on the sandth of an inchso as to be entirely transparent and barely visible to the naked eye andalso of the utmost flexibility. This serves to provide a sack having awall thickness less than the thickness of the superficial mouth tissues.

The receptacle of Figure l, as shown, comprises the top and bottom walls12 and 14 respectively which are joined together along the reartransverse edge as indicated at 16 and along the side edges, from theedge 16, throughout approximately half the length of the side edges asindicated at 18 so that such side edges are open through the remaininghalves of their lengths as indicated at 20 and the receptacle is alsoopen at the side opposite the edge 16, forming the mouth 22. By thisconstruction, that is by having the envelope joined along half thelength of each of its side edges, there are formed the top and bottomfiaps 24 and 25 which are separated to permit the insertion of thedenture as will be readily apparent.

The numeral 26 generallydesignates an upper denture which is shown inFigure 2, in position in the flat receptacle, with a suitable quantityrebasing plastic material 27 therein ready to receive the impression ofthe gums of the person to wear the denture.

In Figures 4 to 6 there is shown a similar sack or recept-acle which isgenerally designated 10a, which is desack are made very thin and of athickness not greater than one thouthe inner and outer sides as shown,the open side or end of the receptacle being defined by the separableflaps 31 and 32 which correspond to the flaps 24 and 25. These flaps areseparate along their side edges down to the base or inner ends of thefurca-tions and it will be readily apparent that in the use thisreceptacle the lower denture, or the lower impression tray, is insertedso that the two sides extend into the furcations 30 which closely,embrace the sides, as well as the top and underside of the denture andthereby prevent the impression material from escaping to any materialdegree from the denture tray when the impression is taken.

In Figure 5 the plastic rebasing material is shown in the lower dentureand is designated 33 and as is illustrated in this figure, when thedenture is placed in the mouth and the mouth is closed so that the gumis forced up into the denture tray which is designated 35, it will beseen that the gum, which is shown in outline and designated 36, willpress the thin flexible receptacle material against the material 33 andforce the impression material firmly into the denture tray or pan and atthe same time a perfect impression of the gum will be left in theimpression material.

The sacks, or receptacles, in which the upper or lower dentures areplaced substantially conform to the shape or outline of the denture, asbefore stated, the free edges of the mouth flaps being rounded, asshown, therefore, the impression material will be held in place when thelower denture is placed in the mouth, even though such material will beon the underneath side of the denture, and there is no excess of thereceptacle material to make an uncomfortable bulk in the patients mouth.

In the carrying out of the present method the thin shield material whichis interposed between the gums and the impression or rebasing material,is of such a soft quality and so thin that a perfect reproduction of thecontours of the gum will be had in the impression material and thesurface of the latter material will have silk like finish. At the sametime the mouth tissues will be prevented from coming into contact withthe impression or rebasing material and thus protected against theirritating action which such material has upon the gum tissues. Also thepatient isprotected from the unpleasant taste which the material has.

Iclaim:

l. The method of rebasing dentures to correct improper fit comprisingfilling a denture with a suitable uantity of soft pliable rebasingmaterial, said material being self-curing at mouth temperature,providing an open-month receptacle in the form of an envelope oftisue-thin elastic flexible material having a wall thickness not greaterthan one thousandth of an inch, inserting said denture in said envelope,disposing said denture and envelope in proper position in the mouth of apatient, fully closing the jaw of the patient into engagement with thesurface of said envelope to form an impression in said material exactlycomplementary to the surfaces of the jaw and mouth normally in contacttherewith, retaining the jaw in firm engagement with the surface of saidenvelope during complete curing of said material to set and bond thesame to said denture, and removing said denture from the mouth and saidenvelope and polishing the same to provide a denture having asubstantially perfect fit, while retaining said rebasing material out ofdirect contact with the mouth tissues during the rebasing operation.

2. For use in rebasing dentures and for preventing contact between therebasing material and the mouth tissues, a receptacle in the form of an,open-mouth envelope of tissue-thin elastic flexible material having awall thickness not greater than one thousandth of an inch for enclosingsaid denture and rebasing material during the rebasing operation andwith the wall of the receptacle interposed between the rebasing materialand the mouth tissues, said receptacle being of a size and contoursubstantially conforming to the size and contour of the denture to bereceived therein during the rebasing operation.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSRobinson Dec. 25, 1951 Greene et al. Aug. 3, 1954

